Alex Lowes is determined to do himself justice against the world’s finest motorcycle racers in his two-race stint with Monster Yamaha Tech 3, starting on home soil at Silverstone this weekend. The Briton is standing in for the injured Bradley Smith this weekend, and at the following round in Misano, after Smith injured knee ligaments at the Oschersleben 8 Hour.
Lowes enjoyed some brief experience aboard the Tech 3 Yamaha YZR-M1 at Brno two weeks ago as a reward for his part in the factory’s Suzuka 8 Hour success but he doesn’t believe that gives him a head-start this weekend, and he feels he is effectively starting from scratch.
“I’m still in nappies I think!” he joked. “I’m honestly not sure because I was so far off the times. From what I learned at the test, the biggest thing I need to learn is the brakes because the carbon brakes are quite a different sensation. I do have some understanding and I already how I can improve some things but I’m a long way from where I need to be and I really hope if I can work hard every session, I really want to feel like I’m in the race at Misano and I can really do myself justice on the bike because if not, it will be a bit frustrating.”
The Lincolnshire rider is currently eleventh in the World Superbike Championship and while he commented that the gap between MotoGP and WorldSBK isn’t as wide as some believe, Lowes is unwilling to predict where he will sit in the pecking order when he takes to the track tomorrow.
“If you look at the guys that are riding the bike, they’re the best guys in the world, so I’d be so stupid to think ‘it doesn’t feel right’ because I don’t know. So in my opinion, I need to keep the bike the same and ride. I just need to learn because however fast I am, the bike will be faster than me so I need to do a lot of laps, learn what it takes to be fast on a MotoGP bike”.
“I don’t know how I’m going to compare to other guys. Obviously, there are some guys I’ve raced against before so I know I won’t be 10 seconds slower than everyone else. By the end of Misano, I really want to be as close to Pol as possible. We rode the same bike at Suzuka and we were a similar pace so it’s not like it’s an unrealistic aim.”
